Colorado State football blows out Air Force to become bowl eligible

Grayson sets single-season passing mark

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor

Posted:
11/30/2013 12:42:32 PM MST

Colorado State football players sing the school fight song after defeating Air Force on Saturday. The Rams dismantled the Falcons in a 58-13 win, making them bowl eligible for the first time since 2008.
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Steve Stoner
)

FORT COLLINS - More domination.

The past seven years, that's how the Colorado State-Air Force football series has been defined. Only Saturday, it came from the other sideline, the one that had so much riding on the outcome. Colorado State said it tried to keep its focus on the game with Air Force itself, but it was hard.

The Falcons had run all over the Rams the past seven years, and that stung.

The seniors were playing their final game at home, but had a chance to play one more game, a bowl. That was a bonus the program hadn't experienced since 2008.

"It was heavily on my mind, I can't speak for everybody," CSU senior linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. "I know my last year I wanted to go to a bowl, and that's going to be in my mind. But I knew if we came out here as a team and took care of business today, it was going happen."

It did. Emphatically. Colorado State (7-6, 5-3 Mountain West) was impressive in every facet of the game. The Rams shut down the Falcons' rushing attack (just 154 yards, 118 less than their average) and didn't allow any points until garbage time, turning Colorado State's 58-0 lead into a 58-13 final result at Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium.

"The way we sent these seniors out, and the way we atoned for seven years of butt-whooping against these guys, I'm just really proud of our guys," CSU coach Jim McElwain said.

It was as complete a game as the Rams have had all season, and it came at the right time. The victory made the team eligible for the postseason, though there are no guarantees with the Mountain West having six bowl contracts and seven teams now with the requisite win total.

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That's for another time, another group. On Saturday, the Rams were just worried about what they could do.

It was a lot.

Kapri Bibbs was listed as "heavily doubtful" for the game, and while he was the third back to get in the game, he was the first to get a carry, picking up 5 yards on a third-and-2 carry.

It was a mistake. The Rams wanted to use him as a decoy, especially early, to give him a feel for the game. But the decoy scored the first two touchdowns of the game to cap the Rams' first two drives, and he would add a third later. He finished with 79 yards on 16 carries and pushed his touchdown total to a nation-leading 28 on the year.

The plan still worked, anyway. The Falcons' secondary would creep up to the line of scrimmage, and quarterback Garrett Grayson took full advantage.

The junior took apart the Falcons in the game, throwing for 395 yards and three touchdowns, and scrambled 22 yards for a score. His throwing gave him the single-season record with 3,327, breaking the 30-year old mark of Terry Nugent.

Colorado State wide receiver Jordon Vaden (11) leaps in the air with teammate Joe Hansley (25) to celebrate Vaden's touchdown catch in the third quarter against Air Force.
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Steve Stoner
)

It could have even been more, but two perfectly thrown deep balls in the game were dropped.

"We knew from about the first two drives how they were going to be playing Crockett (Gillmore) and how they were obviously going to be playing our run game and what we've been doing the past few weeks with Kapri, Donnell (Alexander) and (Chris) Nwoke. We knew they would be bringing guys up close to the line of scrimmage, so if we could just get the one-on-one matchups like we did, that was something we had going into the week and it worked out."

Grayson's first two scoring tosses when to Rashard Higgins, covering 23 and 19 yards, pushing the CSU lead to 27-0. His third was the bomb that connected, a 49-yarder to Jordon Vaden.

The offense most certainly had its way, finishing with 629 yards of total offense. Nwoke added an 8-yard scoring run, and kicker Jared Roberts closed out the first half with a 54-yard field goal, but the unit was the first to say they had help.

"It was a very complete effort by us in every phase," said center Weston Richburg, who started his 49th consecutive game. "I was just really impressed with our defense. I think they did a great job. They made our job easier, because it kind of took the wind out of their team, because they kind of rely on their offense to carry them. Without their offense producing, it made it a lot easier on us."

It started early, as linebacker Aaron Davis - another injured Ram who was considered doubtful - flowed to his right and came up with a key third-down stop to shut down the Falcons' first drive of the game.

"He's a big difference maker on our team," Barrett said. "He plays fast, plays hard. He's always getting to the ball. That's what you can count on from Aaron. If nobody is right there, you can count on Aaron coming in flying at 100 mph to make the tackle."

Air Force punted seven of its first 10 drives, also losing a fumble and turning it over on downs twice before striking against CSU reserves.

"From our guys' attitude, from the way they approached the game, it was pretty impressive," McElwain said.